Customer Reviews

Online Public Relations: A Handbook for Practitioners

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Public relations is one of those businesses that's been slow to grasp the implications of the Internet on its practice. Whereas it has traditionally been rooted in publicity, today's PR people are finding themselves confronted with Listserves, blogs, chat rooms and other online communications that don't fit neatly into their world of news media relations. "Online Public Relations" should help them adjust to their changing world.

The book is divided into three parts: a brief overview of the implications of the 'Net on PR; an annotated, expanded glossary of Internet terms; and an amazing section of websites, broken down by industry, which PR people should know of. Only the first section should be read and it should be read carefully. The other two are mini-reference books and should be treated as such.

Horton makes the case for expanding PR's horizons in the first section. His arguments aren't new: others such as Holtz, Middleberg, Tapscott, Taylor/Wacker and Godin have been making them for years. What makes Horton's version compelling is that they aren't veiled in the corporate-speak of "strategic planning," "interactive, one-to-one marketing," two-way communications modeling" or other catchy phrases best left to the trend seekers reading Fast Company, FSB and other New Age business periodicals. It's also useful to keep in mind what Horton's perspective is. He's not a consultant, professional speaker or full-time author. He's a New York City public relations agency executive. In other words, his mouth's where his money is.

The second section is a long list of terms associated with the Internet. It's best glossed over. PR people will find it useful when someone - probably some 20-something up & comer - uses some techno-speak that needs defining. Horton does that but in English and within the context of the public relations business. Most of his stuff is dead on. Some of it isn't. He has six pages on web page design - a subject that's covered by volumes of books and hundreds of college courses. But he has nothing on international online public relations. Perhaps this is a topic best left to another book but it's one he alludes to several times throughout this one.

However, it's the third section that should be most valuable for PR people. Listing hundreds of websites, it includes media sites with industry sites. This supports Horton's argument that the Internet's used for information differently than traditional media are. For the PR manager reviewing this section, it will come as a mild surprise that there's more to online public relations than old-fashioned news media relations.

All of this isn't to say that "Online Public Relations" is the "be all - end all" of online PR books. It isn't. It seeks to cover a constantly changing situation and, as a printed document, simply can't. Its medium won't let it. The directory of industry websites was outdated before the book was published and can't be updated. The second section has no mention of new online things such as blogs which are becoming more and more popular among journalists, opinion makers and anyone who has an opinion and doesn't mind sharing it. This is a book that needs a website if only for a way to keep it updated as the Internet continues to mutate.

But, despite this somewhat minor flaw, "Online Public Relations" fills a gap on the PR bookshelf. It's the first attempt to put some perspective on the Internet's tools for the public relations industry and, in that, it succeeds. But any PR person buying this book should treat that purchase as an investment. Rather than just buying the book and putting it up on the shelf next to Strunk & White and the AP Stylebook, PR people should use the book as a foundation and build on it. Those second and third sections of the book are going to get more and more outdated as time goes on. But "Online Public Relations" is a good start and the first attempt by an author to help frame the Internet in terms of the day-to-day work PR people do. For that reason, it belongs alongside the PR office's style books, media directories and clip files.

This book was very useful for individuals seeking a job in public relations. The author was very informative as he explained the subject matter. Another excellent resource for finding PR jobs is http://www.PRCrossing.com. I like using http://www.PRCrossing.com to look for jobs because it has jobs only from employer websites and far more jobs than you will find on other job boards. I found a PR job within days using this website. It has all the information that one needs to gain a position in the public relations industry. This is the best PR website on the web!

Horton does an excellent job of going over various ways to go about online job hunting. In today's economy, this is an extremely valuable skill, one that is much harder to hone than that of simply going into a store or office for an interview. Since reading this, I've taken a job in P.R. with a Fortune 500 company and it was rather easy to find. While the book helped quite a bit, I used what I had learned from it to collaborate and come up with my own search methods. I found that the heavily advertised websites lack a lot of the personal job ads that employers like to put out. I came across www.prcrossing.com and came up with a lot of great job opportunities straight from employers websites. They only take them from employers websites and have a TON of jobs. Like over a million easy and growing every day. I tried monster, but didn't particularly enjoy it because it was a little difficult to navigate. If you're serious about starting a decent p.r. career, it's a great place to go.